Baltimore - UMBC's Women's Center is proud to announce a lecture by the President of the Feminist Majority Foundation, Eleanor Smeal, entitled Breaking Barriers and Moving Forward: Feminists Worldwide Pushing for Equality, November 30 at 7 p.m. in the Engineering and Computer Science Building, Lecture Hall V.

One of the architects of the modern drive for women's equality, Smeal is known as a political analyst, strategist, and grassroots organizer. Trained as a political scientist, she was the first to identify the "gender gap" - the difference in the way men and women vote - and popularized its usage in election and polling analyses to enhance women's voting clout. Smeal is the author of How and Why Women Will Elect the Next President (1984) which predicted that women's votes would be decisive in presidential politics. Smeal served as President of the National Organization for Women from 1977-1982 and 1985-1987, when she became President of the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF).

The FMF is dedicated to women's equality, reproductive health, and non-violence. In all spheres, FMF utilizes research and action to empower women economically, socially, and politically. It is engaged in several ongoing projects and campaigns, including the National Clinic Access Project, the Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid, and the CHOICES Campus Campaign, initiated in 1997 to train the next generation of leaders in fair and equal treatment.

This lecture is sponsored in part by the President's Committee on Women, the College of Engineering, the Departments of Education, History, Political Science, Women's Studies, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, College Democrats, and the council of political science majors. There is no charge for admission to this event and ample free parking is available for visitors in lots 9 and 16. For more information about this event, please call the Women's Center at 410-455-2714.